English, the universal
communication bridge
READING
The Death of Language
A language is dead when nobody speaks it any
more. And it is dying when a very small number
of people speak it. A good example is Kasabe,
an African language. The last speaker of Kasabe,
a man called Bogon, died on 5th November 1995.
His children and grandchildren did not speak
or understand Kasabe. So when Bogon died,
he took his language with him. There are no
records of Kasabe, and in a short time, nobody
will remember it.
Not only minority languages like Kasabe are
in danger. It is difficult to make calculations
but some experts think that if a language has
less than 20,000 speakers, it is in danger. This
includes two out of three languages in the
world. Other linguists believe that more than
half of the world’s languages will die in the next
half century.
Why is this important? When you learn another
language, you learn more than a new way to
communicate. In Slovakia, people say: ‘With a
new language you receive a new soul, ’ and in
France: ‘A person with two languages is two
persons.’ It is sad to think that much of the
history and culture of the world will disappear
with future language death.
Sample Unit
Adapted from Language Death by David Crystal.
1 Read the extract from a book and circle the best answer.
The text is about …
1. the death of African languages.
3. languages in danger.
2. the story of Kasabe, an African language.
4. the importance of learning languages.
2 True or false?
1. Kasabe is a dead language.
2. Bogon’s children couldn’t speak Kasabe, but they could understand it.
3. If a language has less than 20,000 speakers, it is dead.
4. Many languages will die in the next 50 years.
5. When a language dies, a part of the history and culture of the world dies too.
76
T
VOCABULARY
3 a. Look at the underlined words
in the text and decide if they are
verbs (V), nouns (N) or adjectives (A).
1. dead
A
6. soul
3. linguists
7. death
•
•
chat
get
•
understand
online with people
from other countries.
b. Complete these sentences with
the words in Exercise 3a.
2. He always
you sometimes
3.
conversations with native speakers?
,
4. You can
it does not exist any more.
3. If you
something, you
get it or obtain it.
4. A
Linguistic research
on the internet.
know a lot about languages.
2. If a language is
lots of information
on the internet if you know English.
native
5. It is sometimes hard to
is a person who can
Sample Unit
communicate in a language.
5.
•
•
have
do
1. I usually
4. die
Linguists
the box to complete the sentences.
5. receive
2. speaker
1.
5 Use the correct form of the verbs in
is the opposite of life.
6. When languages
speakers of English.
6 Use the words in the box to
complete the text.
,
they disappear.
7. The
is the spiritual
•
•
•
•
part of a person.
4 a. Put the letters in order and
discover eight adjectives.
1. f l u e u s
useful
improve
chats
communicate
do
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
get
writes
reads
travel
watches
listens
goes
Gloria is taking an English course. Her English
2. y a s e
is good and she does a lot of things to
3. t i f u d l i c f
1
4. o c l o
3
5. n u f
online and 5
6. n e i g t r i s e t n
African friend. She 6
7. r o g n i b
magazines and 7
8. d r a h
Canadian penfriend. She is a good student,
b. Complete these sentences with
your opinion. Use adjectives from
Exercise 4a.
homework. She thinks it’s boring!
1. I think English is
it. She 2
to songs,
American films, 4
with a South
English
letters to a
but she doesn’t always 8
her
She is interested in learning English because
she wants to 9
because
around the world
when she finishes school. She knows that
.
2. Learning languages is
improve
because
.
English will help her to 10
with
people from different countries and to
11
a better job.
77
GRAMMAR
1 Complete the sentences with the
b. Look at the picture of Kim and
write sentences.
correct form of the present simple.
1. Peter’s Spanish class
starts
1. Kim / wait / for the bus
Kim’s waiting for the bus.
(start) at eight o’clock every day.
2. Miriam often
.
2. She / carry / heavy bag
(take)
.
Portuguese private lessons at home.
3. Dan and Harry always
(travel)
3. She / wear / a school uniform
.
to France on holidays to practice their
4. Kim / not listen / music
French.
.
4. A language is dead when nobody
(speak) it.
5. About 960 million people
(speak)
Mandarin Chinese in the world today.
2 a. Complete the questions.
1. What does Kim do
3 Complete with the correct form of
the present simple or the present
continuous.
Kim 1 is thinking (think) about her day at
school and she 2
(not listen) to
Sample Unit
?
She studies in a bilingual school in London.
2. What time
?
She gets up at 7 o’clock.
3. Does
(want) to go to a party on Saturday, but Kim
(not like) parties. Hannah and
4
Kim
University?
No, she doesn’t.
4. Where
her friend, Hannah. Hannah
(go out) a lot together
5
and Hannah
She catches the bus on the corner of her street.
5. When
The bus comes at about a quarter to eight.
?
(be) a good friend.
6
Hannah says, ‘Well,
the bus?
3
7
(you want)
to go?’ And Kim answers, ‘OK. What time?’
4 Complete the text with an
appropriate form of the verbs in
brackets.
My name is Birinder and I live in London.
I 1 can speak (can / speak) three languages:
English, Hindi and Swahili. I learnt Swahili
when I lived in Africa. My Swahili isn’t very good
now, but I 2
(like / practise) it.
I3
(can / read) it, but
I4
(not / can / write) it very well.
When I was small, I 5
(could /
say) a lot of things in Swahili.
Kim
78
I’m bilingual because my parents are from
India and I always speak Hindi to them. My
mother 6
(like / talk) to me in
7
English, but I
(hate / speak)
English at home – it doesn’t feel natural.
I8
(not / mind / speak) English
at school. I 9
(love / listen) to
my English friends. Their English sounds great!
LISTENING
5 Write sentences with can, can’t,
1
could or couldn’t.
Listen to Tom and Emma
talking on the phone. Where are they?
02
a. They’re on holiday with their family in Spain.
b. They’re staying with a Spanish family.
c. They’re at a language school in Spain.
2
Listen again and tick (✓) the
words you hear.
03
1. family
1. Kids / learn languages easily
Kids can learn languages easily.
.
2. Some people / speak 7 or 8 languages
.
3. Last year / I / visit Sidney / but / I / not study
3
English
✓
5. holiday
2. parents
6. mistakes
3. children
7. languages
4. friends
8. grammar
Listen one more time. Circle
the correct option.
04
Sample Unit
.
4. Spanish speakers / understand some
1. Emma’s family …
Portuguese
a. are helping her learn Spanish.
.
5. Last year / he / not tell a joke in English
2. Tom’s family …
.
6. I / not pass my last Japanese test
6 Complete the dialogue with the
correct form of can.
How many languages 1
(you) speak?
can you
No, 4
(I / not ) . 5
(I)
only speak English, but I’m learning
French. 6
(My dad) speak
English, German and some Russian.
Katie: Wow!
Alex:
3. Tom is meeting …
a. a lot of girls.
b. a lot of girls and boys.
Katie: Well, 2
(I) speak English,
Spanish and French. My mum’s Spanish
and I lived in France when I was small.
3
(you) speak Spanish or
French?
Alex:
a. have a boy his age.
b. don’t have any children.
.
Alex:
b. didn’t understand her.
4. Emma is learning a lot of …
a. grammar.
b. new vocabulary.
5. Tom is …
a. speaking a lot of Spanish.
b. studying a lot of grammar.
6. Emma doesn’t like …
a. speaking Spanish.
b. making mistakes.
7. Tom thinks it’s important …
a. to enjoy yourself.
Well,
(he / not) remember
much Russian – he studied it at school
a long time ago.
7
b. to write things down.
79
WRITING
1 Complete Cathy’s profile.
and your own ideas to complete the
sentences.
Cathy Pitt, 15
Country: Canada
Languages: English,
French
Likes:
Pay attention to the words in bold!
1. Cathy … but she can’t speak Spanish.
Cathy can speak English and French,
but she can’t speak Spanish.
☺☺ playing computer
games,
online
2. She likes playing computer games and
☺☺☺ computers, action films, pop music
Dislikes:
☹☹
3 Use the information in the profile
to airports,
by plane
☹☹☹ horror films, rock music
3. She wants to be a graphic designer because
4. She loves action films and
5. She loves action films but
Sample Unit
I can … draw animals,
football and
salsa.
One day I want to … visit South America.
And I want to be a graphic designer!
Write to me at [email protected]
6. She doesn’t like going to airports or
7. She can draw animals and
4 Complete this profile with
2 Answer about Cathy.
information about an ideal friend.
Use your imagination!
1. Where is she from?
She’s from Canada.
2. How old is she?
Country:
Languages:
3. How many languages can she speak?
Likes:
4. What place does she want to go to
Dislikes:
one day?
5. Does she like horror films?
6. What does she like doing?
7. What is her email address?
80
I can …
One day I want to …
Write to me at
SELF-CHECK
VOCABULARY
5 Write yes / no questions using the
1 Use adjectives to complete with your
opinion.
1. Learning English is
.
2. Airports are
.
3. The internet is
.
4. Languages are
.
2 Complete the verbs.
words in brackets.
Yes, she can. (understand English songs)
?
2.
Yes, they do. (like travelling)
?
3.
No, he isn’t. (carry a suitcase)
?
4.
1. She s
No, I couldn’t. (swim when you were 4)
two languages.
2. They often s
the internet.
3. We c
?
1.
Yes, she does. (do community work)
on MSN every day.
4. You never d
your homework!
?
5.
?
6.
No, they don’t. (help at home)
3 Match.
?
7.
1. When I finish school, I want to get ...
Yes, I do. (hang around with friends)
Sample Unit
2. She likes travelling to ...
?
8.
3. He uses English for writing ...
No, he doesn’t. (read in bed)
4. We sometimes do ...
5. Languages help you to communicate ...
a. with people.
ENGLISH IN USE
6 Answer with true information
b. other countries.
about you.
c. emails.
1. What do you sometimes do at weekends?
d. a good job.
e. research on the internet.
2. What are you doing right now?
GRAMMAR
4 Complete with an appropriate form
of the words in brackets.
1. They sometimes
(visit)
other countries.
2. We
(not / like / wait) at the
airport when planes are delayed.
3. Flight BR456
(board) right now.
4. We
(can / speak) Chinese.
5. He
(not / could / understand)
3. What can you do in English?
4. What could you do in English two years ago?
5. What do you like doing?
6. What do you hate doing?
7. When do you do your homework?
French when he was small.
6. She
(hate / travel) by plane.
8. Who do you like spending time with? Why?
7. They are at the information desk. They
(ask) about flight IT789 to Italy.
81